Fiddler on the Roof has a lot to answer to! As a ten year old sitting in the school hall listening to my brother’s debut musical performance as Tevye, I had no illusions of grandeur, no grand plans for world domination. Life was simple.

Now a writer, note the omission of “rich”, my ambitions have matured along with my age. I have finally succeeded in securing my second publishing contract. Yes, I am thrilled, delighted, my fragile ego and struggling self-esteem have finally been publicly acknowledged, that yes I am a bona-fide author and not just a wannabe scribbler!

Recently, while driving, I got to thinking about perspectives within stories.

(I do a lot of thinking while I drive…I do a lot of swearing to myself at the idiots on the road too…yup, I’m one of those drivers).

Now by ‘perspective’ I mean in reference to the narrator’s voice. As in the perspective of the narrator. If you are writing a book in 3rd person your narrator will probably change (unless you’re writing 3rd person limited).

This week’s guest poster is the wonderful M S Harris who discusses writing manuscripts in a language that is not your native one.

How To Write In A Foreign Language

by M.S. Harris

I have been writing for a long time and I’ve been making stories in my head for as long as I can remember.

Not only do I write and I make stories, but I write them in English. English is not my first language, Greek is and through a lot of thinking I decided that writing in English is the better choice for me.

Originally this term meant “God from the Machine” and was in reference to when a “god” character in a play was lowered on stage via a cable device. The god was often brought in as a divine intervention for a situation that was unfixable.

The term has changed now and is used as a negative connotation to explain a sudden illogical plot twist used to completely alter a situation. Sadly this sort of thing happens in fiction whereby someone or something is introduced into the plotline just to create a contrived solution to an unsolvable issue / conflict.

Since creative people are tangled in a vast swathe of emotions and sensations, negativity is certainly part of that tapestry and it has its place.

But too much and everything becomes dull. Now the negativity I’m speaking of isn’t even the expected kind – you know that self-hating, self-doubting type we writers sometimes find following us around like a bad smell.

Yup, these stereotypes creep into books and movies all too often and so I feel it’s my duty to point them out (mainly because they annoy me and well, that’s a good enough reason for me to write this article) 🙂

This week’s guest post is the wonderful Suzanne Rogerson, author of Visions of Zarua, sharing her tips for self publishing 🙂

15 Tips for Self-Publishing (the second time around) by Suzanne Rogerson

First some back ground on me;

When I self-published my first fantasy novel Visions of Zarua in 2015 I was a complete novice. The ebook was published in November, and then after a hasty change of heart, I published the paperback in December.

It was an intense time but I was lucky to have the support of my editor, Alison Williams, to answer my many questions and the rest I researched on the internet.

My name is Matthew J. Mimnaugh and this is a guest post. Today I’m going to be talking about pre-writing, or the various approaches and tools a writer can implement as a precursor to putting words on the page with the intent of sharing with an audience—it’s an important distinction, trust me. This isn’t a list and I don’t cover everything—not by a long shot. Instead, much like my own blog, it’s a smattering of ideas with a general takeaway. So, without further ado, let us begin: